


Strangers

by Sasshii



Category: AKB48
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 03:05:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1288849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sasshii/pseuds/Sasshii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had started off as strangers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangers

Yokoyama Yui quickly scanned the shelves that were stocked with what seemed like an endless amount of bright, multicolored packages. She hummed a pop song she had heard on the radio quietly to herself and reached out grabbing one of the packages and dropping it into her shopping basket, mentally crossing ‘chips’ off the list.

Drinks were next up on her list. Yui exited the aisle and made her way towards the back of the store where the coolers that held the drinks were located. She did a once over on the selections that were presented neatly in front of her before reaching into the cooler and picking a large bottle filled with opaque liquid out and gently placing it in the basket. With the drink picked out she was done. Yui congratulated herself for another successful shopping trip and headed towards the cashiers to check out.

 

Luckily for Yui it was rather late into the night and thus the lines weren’t as long as it would’ve been had she come to do her shopping earlier. She walked over towards the first open register she spotted and lifted her basket up to place it on the counter.

“Hello,” The cashier greeted plainly, not even bothering to crack a small smile at Yui. 

Yui greeted back with a smile, watching the lethargic girl pull the items out of the basket and lazily scan them before haphazardly placing them in a plastic bag.

“Are you new?” Yui asked curiously in an attempt to make conversation. She frequented this convenience store often as it was the closest to her apartment and she was quite surprised to find that instead of the large, burly man that worked the night shift she was greeted by this frail, quiet girl instead.

The girl simply nodded not even bothering to look up at Yui, “700 yen.”

Yui fumbled for her wallet, taken aback by how casually she was brushed off. Maybe the girl was having a bad day, Yui mused as she pulled out a 1,000 yen note and handing it over to the girl.

The cashier placed the money into the register and handed Yui back 2, 100 yen coins.

Yui stared at the coins in confusion and quickly did the math in her head to make sure she wasn’t the one making the mistake. 1,000 minus 700 equaled 300 but instead of 300 yen she was staring at 200 yen, “Uh.”

The cashier stared at her, clueless, her hand with the coins still held out.

Yui closed her mouth and took the coins. If this girl was already having a bad day, Yui didn’t want to make it worse by trying to correct her small mistake. It was only 100 yen after all, “Thank you.”

“Bye,” The girl waved unenthusiastically at Yui. Yui waved back, shooting one last look at the cashier before she stepped through the sliding doors.

______

The second time Yui encountered the salty cashier, as she had dubbed her, it was about 2am and she had just gotten off of work and stopped by the store to pick up a quick, late dinner, too lazy to cook something up herself. Yui set the premade bento on the counter and looked up, surprised to see the same cashier, she had thought she would’ve been fired by now.  
“Hello,” The girl greeted, a smile still not found on her face.

Yui greeted in kind, squinting her eyes at the cashier’s name tag. The handwriting was incredibly tiny and to make matters worse it was written in light pencil making it near impossible to read the letters.

“Are you okay?” The cashier voiced, staring at Yui as if she had grown a third eye.

Yui raised her eyes back up to the cashier’s face, not realizing that she must have looked stupid and like a pervert staring in the general direction of the girl’s chest, “O-oh, No, I wasn’t- I was just-” Yui stumbled over her words, “Your name tag,” She finished dumbly.

The girl looked down at her name tag before looking back up at Yui, confused, “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing! I was just trying to read it is all,” Yui didn’t know why she wanted to know this cashier’s name so badly. Perhaps it was because she wanted an actual name to put to the face, instead of having to constantly refer to her as the salty cashier in her mind.

The cashier made a face, “800 yen,” She said, as if Yui hadn’t mentioned anything about names at all.

“It’s supposed to be 900 yen isn’t it?” Yui pointed at the bento that was clearly priced at 900.

The girl shrugged her shoulders, “I owe you 100 yen.”

Yui looked up from her wallet, surprised. She didn’t think the cashier would’ve realized her mistake from a couple of days ago, “Thank you.”

The girl shrugged again and held the plastic bag out towards Yui who gratefully took it into her hands. “Shimazaki Haruka.”

Yui strained her ears trying to hear the girl, “Huh?”

“My name,” The girl focused her eyes towards the shelves instead of at Yui, “Shimazaki Haruka,” She repeated a bit louder.

“Shimazaki Haruka,” Yui repeated, letting the name roll of her tongue, “Yokoyama Yui,” Yui introduced herself holding her hand out towards Haruka.

The cashier stared down at Yui’s hand before hesitantly reaching her hand out to grip Yui’s.

“Nice to meet you, Shimazaki-san.”

______

After learning the cashier’s name, Yui had found herself visiting the convenience store more and more often during the off hours of the night when Haruka usually worked. Yui wasn’t exactly quite sure on why she wanted to see the girl so desperately. Rather Haruka piqued her interests quite a bit and Yui couldn’t help but want to get to know the girl better. Perhaps they could even become friends.

Tonight was her fifth time in a row at the store and she was sure that Haruka was starting to mentally question why Yui was always there.

“I like convenience stores,” Yui blurted out before she could stop herself.

Haruka looked up from the register, confused at Yui’s sudden words.

“I-I mean, that’s why I’m here all the time, if that’s what you were wondering…” Yui trailed off, appalled at how badly she was embarrassing herself.

Haruka simply nodded as she if she wasn’t interested in Yui’s random mumblings, “300 yen.”

Yui reached into her wallet and pulled out the coins, her face red, “D-Do you always work nights?” Yui paused, “I’m just curious!” She said louder than she had intended, realizing how creepy the question must have sounded.

“I have school in the mornings,” Haruka said. If she had thought Yui’s probing was weird she didn’t make it known on her face.

“Oh, so you’re a student then?” Yui continued to ask, dropping the coins in Haruka’s outstretched hand.

The cashier nodded again, depositing the coins in the register’s drawer.

Yui eyed the cashier, she hadn’t realized before how young she actually looked. She was probably in her late teens and suddenly Yui felt that much creepier.

“I’m going to be 20 soon.”

Yui looked at the cashier, bewildered. Was she reading her mind just now? Yui desperately tried to erase any thoughts she had about the girl just in case. One could never be too safe and Yui had read enough Sci-Fi novels in her teens to know it was always better to assume anything was possible.

“You looked like you were wondering,” Haruka said plainly, noticing the perplexed look on the other girl’s face.

Yui breathed a sigh of relief at both the fact that Haruka wasn’t a mind reader and that she wasn’t as young as Yui had thought her to be.

“If all you wanted was to talk to me, you can just come in and talk to me,” Haruka started, pushing the plastic bag towards Yui, “Instead of wasting all your money buying things you don’t need.”

Yui stopped and sputtered intelligibility, “Tha-That’s not- I need these things,” Yui peaked into the plastic bag, already forgetting what she paid for. A small package of gum sat at the bottom of the bag and Yui swallowed, “I’m addicted to gum. I only came because I needed gum.” Yui finished lamely.

Haruka hummed, “And yesterday when all you bought were mints?”

“I like to eat mints before I go to sleep,” Yui said matter of factly, making a mental note to buy items that made it look more like she wasn’t just here to have an excuse to see the cashier.

Haruka let out a small laugh and Yui looked up at the cashier surprised, feeling her heart beat a bit faster at the sound. It was the first time Yui had seen the girl express an emotion besides absolute boredom.

“You should laugh more,” Yui said, a small smile playing on her lips, “It suits you.”

Haruka pushed the plastic bag towards Yui again, “Whatever,” She brushed the compliment off, her lips turning upwards.

______

 

The next time Yui saw Haruka again, it was a week after their previous encounter. Yui had suddenly found herself overwhelmed with the amount of work at her job and didn’t have the energy to go anywhere else but her bed after she clocked out. When the workload had finally eased up and Yui regained her energy back she found herself in front of the continence store in the dead of the night.

Yui stepped in through the sliding door and wandered around the store mindlessly, not sure on what she wanted to purchase. Gum and mints were definitely a no go. She walked around the aisles until she found herself in the pet aisle and decided that she might as well pick something up for Bis. She scanned the shelves and picked up one of the random packages of cat snacks and made her way towards the registers.

As she neared the counter, Yui felt her chest tighten in excitement at the prospect of seeing Haruka again. A week without seeing the cashier had felt empty to Yui as if she had forgotten to put on one of her shoes or had left the house without properly combing her hair.

“Hello,” A bright, unfamiliar voice greeted Yui.

Yui turned her head up. The cashier that stood in front of her was not Haruka but instead a shorter and older woman who smiled unnaturally wide at Yui.

“Hello,” Yui greeted back, pushing aside her surprise and disappointment. Haruka must have had a day off today and Yui silently cursed her bad luck. She had really hoped to be able to see her today.

“500 yen, please.”

Yui fished in her pockets and pulled out a 1,000 yen note, placing it in the cashier’s outstretched hand.

The cashier deposited the note in the register, “500 yen is your change,” The woman handed back Yui the correct amount of coins to which Yui lazily shoved them in her jacket pocket, taking the plastic bag in her hands, “Thank you, have a nice day!”

Yui walked back outside with a heavy sigh. She’d have to try her luck tomorrow instead.

“Disappointed?” A familiar voice pipped up from behind her.

Yui spun on her heel and spotted the girl that she was previously looking for loitering near the entrance of the store. 

“Shimazaki-san,” Yui greeted, a smile unconsciously making it’s way to her face.

Haruka simply nodded in greeting.

“You aren’t working today?” Yui questioned, stepping closer towards the cashier.

“They fired me,” Haruka said as if it was something she had already expected to happen.

Yui couldn’t believe that it taken the manager nearly a month to actually find out that Haruka wasn’t suitable for this kind of job at all.

“Oh,” Yui said lamely. She felt the disappointment rise in her chest, realizing that this meant she wouldn’t be able to see the other girl again.

Haruka hummed and looked down at her fingers as Yui stood there awkwardly, not quite sure what to say.

“Aren’t you going to ask for my number?” Haruka spoke up, breaking the silence.

“H-Huh?” Yui was taken aback by Haruka’s sudden forwardness.

“You still want to see me, don’t you?” The ex cashier asked, looking down at her hands again.

“Of course,” Yui replied quickly, “Only if you don’t mind though, Shimazaki-san.” She added, not wanting to impose on the younger girl.

“I wouldn’t ask if I minded.”

Haruka’s lips turned upwards into a small smile for the second time since Yui had met the girl. Yui couldn’t help but smile back, happy that she was able to elicit a reaction from the usually impassive girl.

Haruka pulled her mobile device out of her pocket and handed it to Yui, “You can call me Haruka, by the way.”

Yui took the device into her hands, “Haruka,” She tested, ecstatic at the closeness that it implied, “Call me Yui, then.” Yui tapped at the screen, imputing her contact information into the device before handing it back to Haruka.

“Yui,” Haruka echoed, mulling over whatever thoughts that were running through her head.

Yui had to stop herself from yelling out in excitement, as embarrassing as it was hearing the younger girl refer to her by name sent her heart upside down.

“Yui,” Haruka repeated. She pointed towards the bag in Yui’s hand, “You have a cat?”

Yui looked down at the bag, completely forgetting about her purchase, “Yeah, his name’s Bis.”

Haruka paused as if she contemplating something, “Can I meet him?”

“You- I – You can but, aren’t you worried about coming to a stranger’s apartment?” It wasn’t that Haruka had anything to be afraid of but rather Yui found it odd for the girl to be so trusting of someone she had just met a month ago and hardly knew anything about. For all Haruka knew she might have been a serial killer, which she wasn’t but Haruka didn’t know that for certain.

“We’re friend’s aren’t we?” Haruka eyed the older girl, shrugged her shoulders, “I trust you enough not to do anything weird.”

Friends? The words caused Yui to break out into a large smile. Yui nodded, “I suppose we are.”


End file.
